Genre: Biography/Drama/Sports
Director: Bennett Miller
Writer: Jacob Jones
Cast: Halston Sage, Jack Black, Mark Ruffalo, Bradley Cooper, Lucas Till, Austin Butler, Spencer Locke, Alan Ritchson, Brittany Snow, Jason Dolley, Jonathan Tucker, Ben Barnes, Matty Cardarople, Pamela Anderson (cameo)
Plot: The year is 2011:
A woman sits inside a house, staring blankly at a television. In a voice-over, she asks us if we had a chance to revolutionize something and start a new era, would they do it? She then asks that if you knew the risks that came with fame and getting in the wrong crowd, would it still be worth it? She can tell you from experience, she’s seen her life transform before her eyes. She hasn’t liked all of it, but she’ll be damned if it hasn’t been a roller coaster ride.
Her name is Tammy Lynn Sytch (Pamela Anderson), more famously known as Sunny. And after all these years, it’s time for the sun to rise and for her to give you her life story.
The year is now 1992:
A younger Tammy Lynn Sytch (Halston Sage) sits inside a small arena with a few hundred other people, smiling excitedly for the wrestling show. The older Tammy reveals that growing up, she always had a passion for wrestling and would stop by local WWF events every now and then to garner autographs of her favorite superstars. This would mark a special day for Tammy though, as today was the day she would meet her boyfriend. A young, up and coming star named Chris Candido (Lucas Till).
Immediately awestruck by his look, when the show ends a nervous Tammy comes up to Chris, introducing herself to him. Chris smiles warmly politely introducing him. The two chat for a little bit and find a slight connection with each other. The two agree to hang out with each other more. Several weeks go by and soon the two become an official couple. One day, as Chris is shown headed out to go on the road, he asks Tammy if she would like to come along. Intrigued, Tammy accepts the offer and the two set out taking pictures of several wrestlers along the way (a job she had in college was being a photographer). She even gets to be at his corner during matches, despite not being paid anything in return. Tammy doesn’t mind however as she enjoys watching her boyfriend wrestle.
One such place Chris and Tammy worked for was Jim Cornette’s (Mark Ruffalo) Smokey Mountain Wrestling, where Chris was booked as one of their top stars. It’s there she got her first break, playing a snobby feminist who idolized Hillary Clinton. Her talent on the mic becomes undeniable and her sex appeal makes her a popular figure in the locker room.
After one event, Tammy and Chris are complimented by her peers for the work they put in when Jim comes up to them, asking them to come inside his office. Inside, Jim reveals that someone from up in the World Wrestling Federation had called her and was requesting their presence. Tammy takes the phone call, listening to every word. She becomes jubilated to hear that she was invited by the company to audition for a role. Chris and Tammy embrace, Jim congratulating her. He then reminds her of how big an opportunity it is to be working amongst the guys in WWF and tells her to bring her best.
The big day comes and Tammy flies off to New York, over to WWF headquarters where she meets the chairman of the board Vince McMahon (Bradley Cooper). The two greet each other and she is shown around the area while seeing a few of the stars the company had at the time. The audition process begins and it seems Tammy is ready for her promo. However, her nerves get the better of her and she botches several lines in the process. She tries again, but it doesn’t get much better. Eventually, the audition ends and after thanking Vince for the opportunity, she flies back home to Tennessee and softly cries into the arms of Chris. Fearing she had blown her chance.
Several days later, Tammy gets another phone call, learning that Vince felt she had the potential to do something good in the company and is invited back to New York to serve as a correspondent named Tamara Murphy. One month later, Tammy learns that her boyfriend Chris had been hired by the company and the two would be repackaged as Team Spirit. Just one condition, the two would have to play faces. This disappoints Tammy as she felt the two were much better suited to play heels. But Chris says that it’s Vince’s call. Nothing they could do about it.
One night, during a show in SMW, Chris and Tammy took part in an angle where they had (in kayfabe) killed the cat of a babyface. That night, as the two were set to take part in a pre-show match for WWF, Jim wishes the two good luck. Team Spirit comes out to the crowd...and gets viciously booed, the crowd still remembering the cat killing angle from earlier. When Vince and Jim watch from backstage, Vince starts to wonder if making them a babyface team is worth it and considers other ideas. In the end, Team Spirit is scrapped and the two are repackaged as Skip and Sunny, a pair of arrogant fitness fanatics who felt they had the perfect bodies. The two run several vignettes hyping up their debut.
Skip and Sunny become a hit with the WWF fandom, despised for their arrogant showboating. Backstage however, Tammy and Chris are well liked for their hard work and talent. Occasionally cat-called by the other wrestlers, Tammy keeps a good head and focuses on making herself better. Sensing their success, Vince decides to push Skip as a tag team wrestler pairing him up with veteran Tom Prichard (Jack Black). Tom doesn’t seem to intrigued with the gimmick but Chris’s good natured personality helps warm up to the idea.
The team becomes a success and they win the tag team titles thanks to the guidance of Sunny. While the two dominate the tag team division, Sunny begins to grow more popular with the fanbase, most notably the 18-35 demographic. Intrigued with her marketing potential, Vince pushes her as the first ‘Diva of WWF’. It was around this time a change began to come with Tammy as she became more of a prima donna, being stuck up and arrogant. Chris however doesn’t seem to notice as he’s too focused on his tag team with Tom.
Eventually, Sunny parts ways with The Bodydonnas managing another tag team for a few weeks before joining forces with the kayfabe brother tag team of Billy (Jason Dolley) and Bart (Jonathan Tucker) Gunn. As part of her character, Sunny would manipulate the brothers, thinking she liked one over the other and the two would begin to fight for her affections. This would prove to backfire one night as their bickering costs them the tag team titles. In a fit of rage, Sunny fires the two in the ring and storms off.
By this point, Sunny’s profile had taken off considerably, having also done a bikini shot for WWF’s RAW magazine. She had become a sex symbol for the company and was garnering mainstream attention. It’s soon learned that at one point, Vince told her that Playboy had called and asked if she could pose for them. Taken aback, Tammy rejects the offer. Vince respecting the decision.
One day, Tammy is shown sleeping in her hotel room with Chris when someone knocks on the door. Irritated, Tammy opens the door revealing Davey Boy Smith (Ben Barnes). After laughing over her PJs, he tells her that Shawn Michaels (Austin Butler) just got beaten up by several people. Stunned, Tammy wakes Chris up and they run over to Shawn’s hotel room. Nearly unconscious and bleeding, Tammy tells Chris to call 911 and rides in the ambulance to the hospital with him. She helps take very good care of him and being a good samaritan to him.
From that moment on, the two would have long conversations on the phone, Tammy checking on Shawn and seeing if he’s alright. One day, Tammy jokingly suggests that Shawn take a vacation and Shawn asks where they want to go. Tammy is shocked at first, but she accepts the offer. The two become enamored with each other during their vacation and Tammy begins to see and hang out with him more often. As this occurs, wrestlers backstage begin to become convinced that Tammy is cheating on Chris behind his back. One such person who has concerns is Bret Hart (Alan Ritchson), who despite being one of Tammy’s best friends tells him to be careful. Chris however pays no attention to what she is doing, preferring to stay out of it.
The relationship comes to a mutual end when Tammy begins to feel bad for Chris and decides not to move in with Shawn. Shawn seems to understand at first, but when he notices Tammy and Bret hanging out, he gets the idea to bring up their relationship on TV during a promo. Bret confronts him about it afterwards, eventually esclating into a backstage scuffle which has several wrestlers breaking it up. Feeling the stress and anguish of traveling on the road and dealing with wild personalities, Tammy starts to drink more often. Something that would soon become an addiction.
The year is now 1997. By this point, Chris had been released from the company and was now worknig for ECW. Tammy however remains prominent on television. Despite this, she is displeased with her place and begins to feel like she’s being underutilized. When she tries to talk to other wrestlers, she is ignored in place of the new women in town. The very attractive Rena Mero (Spencer Locke), otherwise known as Sable. She had been paired up with her real life husband Marc Mero (Matty Cardarople), but had exploded in popularity. When everyone’s away, Rena looks around in contempt until she sees Tammy. Her sneer is replaced with an insincere grin as the two chat for a bit. It’s there Tammy comes out to Rena about some of her concerns and strains, calling herself the ‘star’ of the divas. Rena assures her that her star will shine bright as long as she shines bright. But when Rena leaves, her smile turns into a callous frown as finds her boyfriend, talking behind her back. Calling her stuck up and a bitch. This continues for several months. When Tammy finally finds out about it, she confronts her about it. The two argue before Marc gets involved, telling Tammy to back off.
WrestleMania 14 comes around Rena takes up all the adulation and praise from the other wrestlers, leaving Tammy and another woman named Luna Vachon (Brittany Snow) behind. Luna, having served as a mentor to Sable watches on, secretly despondent over her taking all the credit in spite of her helping her put the best match of her career. But Tammy is furious, managing one of the most famous tag teams of all time (Legion of Doom) and not even having the spotlight. One day, sensing an opportunity to cement herself as the top diva once and for all, Rena comes up to Luna. Warning her that she’s heard Tammy talk bad about her behind her back. She offers to help confront Tammy as a token of gratefulness for carrying her during their WrestleMania match, but Luna goes at it alone, going on a hunt to find her.
When Luna finally finds Tammy, she charges after her, ready to kill her. She is thankfully stopped by a head writer for the company and is forcibly restrained, all the while screaming about how much of a bitch Tammy is and that Rena told her everything. Having had enough Rena, she comes up to her, snapping at her and calling her out for her actions. The two argue for a bit until Tammy slaps her, ensuring a full-on catfight that has to be broken up. It’s around this time Tammy’s addiction with alcohol began to get worse and also began to include painkillers. For those reasons, the WWF had no choice but to release her.
Tammy would find work in ECW and WCW, working alongside her boyfriend Chris again. Her addictions only continuing to grow worse, chipping at her once beautiful face and body. Finally, with the stress of traveling on the road getting to her, Tammy fully emerged herself on the bottle while Chris set off for Japan. Before leaving, Chris reminds her that no matter what, she’ll always be his Sunny. With Chris exploring work in Japan, Tammy begins to feel abdominal pains and soon is locked in critical condition, having had an appendix burst on her.
The bad times would only get worse as during a PPV for new promotion NWA-TNA, Chris Candido would take a bad bump, fracturing his tibula and fibula and forcing him to take surgery. He would die a few days later from a blood clot, a complication regarding surgery. Now having completly let herself go, Tammy decides for Chris’s sake to try and give wrestling another shot. Before that however, she decides to put in some extra time and energy in getting her looks back and becoming the Sunny she once was.
The year is once again 2011:
The scene exactly the same from the one we started with. Older Tammy watches on, smiling at her Hall of Fame ceremony proudly. She tells us that in the end, it was all worth it to an extent. She had learned many lessons during her time in the business. Were there things she could take back? Absolutely. She glances at a picture of her and Chris from back when they were in WWF as Skip and Sunny and her smile only grows wider.
“At the end of the day, no matter what I did next. I knew somehow, someway, I was going to be in for some sunny days.”
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